The Collector of Dying Breaths by M J Rose

Jellyfish has cheated death. Man is still in constant search to live forever. We do hear news that the person to live forever is already born. Sometimes the thought that one could live forever could be frightening, and what are we going to do with these long lives.

If soul were the essence of the body, and the soul can live forever taking different lives and by capturing this essence in one's last breath, can we relive the glorious moments of our various lives? If that were possible, it would be better than immortality, right? Instead of living one long boring life, one could have various lives in various times and remember them all. It is the rich and mighty who want to live forever or enjoy the moments of various lives, the poor are content with living for the moment. It happened in the faraway past and it still happens now. In the Sixteenth century France, Queen Mother Catherine de Medici's perfumer Rene Bianco had been collecting dying breaths and researching a method to reanimate the soul in another. In the present, Melinoe Cypros has all the wealth in the world to enjoy immortality and persuades recently bereaved Jac to continue the work of her dead brother Robbie to find the essence to reanimate the soul with the help of Bianco's notes. Will she find it? Is it worth the effort?

The story moves between past and present, about why Bianco had to create the Elixir to reanimate souls and Jac's efforts to recreate the Elixir. Interesting twist in creating Elixir for Jac is how is she going to find the ingredients the Elixir calls for in its true state. Remember pollution and natural changes in things over centuries, so how will she recreate it? We get a glimpse of the political intrigue in Catherine de Medici's palace and the role of a perfumer in the Queen's Entourage. More than a mystery, this is essentially a love story, about a love and passion a man has for a woman centuries ago, and love another woman keeps running from in the present. Of love that could destroy and the obsession to live forever. A gripping story of immortal love and love for immortality!

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SYNOPSIS
From one of America’s most imaginative storytellers comes a passionate tale of love and treachery, spanning the days of Catherine de Medici’s court to the twenty-first century and starring a woman drawn back, time and again, to the past.

In 1533, an Italian orphan with an uncanny knack for creating fragrance is plucked from poverty to become Catherine de Medici’s perfumer. To repay his debt, over the years René le Florentine is occasionally called upon to put his vast knowledge to a darker purpose: the creation of deadly poisons used to dispatch the Queen’s rivals.

But it’s René’s other passion—a desire to reanimate a human breath, to bring back the lives of the two people whose deaths have devastated him—that incites a dangerous treasure hunt five centuries later. That’s when Jac L’Etoile—suffering from a heartache of her own—becomes obsessed with the possibility of unlocking Rene’s secret to immortality.

Soon Jac’s search reconnects her with Griffin North, a man she’s loved her entire life. Together they confront an eccentric heiress whose art collection rivals many museums and who is determined to keep her treasures close at hand, not just in this life but in her next.

Set in the forest of Fontainebleau, crisscrossing the lines between the past and the present, M.J. Rose has written a mesmerizing tale of passion and obsession. This is a gothic tale perfect for fans of Anne Rice, Deborah Harkness, and Diana Galbadon. [from the publisher]

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Author Bio

M.J. Rose, is the international bestselling author of 13 novels;Lip Service, In Fidelity,Flesh Tones, Sheet Music, Lying in Bed, The Halo Effect, The Delilah Complex, The Venus Fix,The Reincarnationist, The Memorist, The Hypnotist, The Book of Lost Fragrances, and Seduction.
Rose is also the co-author with Angela Adair Hoy of How to Publish and Promote Online and with Randy Susan Meyers of What to Do Before Your Book Lauch.

She is a founding member and board member of International Thriller Writers and the founder of the first marketing company for authors: AuthorBuzz.com. She runs the popular blog; Buzz, Balls & Hype.

Getting published has been an adventure for Rose who self-published Lip Service late in 1998 after several traditional publishers turned it down. Editors had loved it, but didn’t know how to position it or market it since it didn’t fit into any one genre.

Frustrated, but curious and convinced that there was a readership for her work, she set up a web site where readers could download her book for $9.95 and began to seriously market the novel on the Internet.

After selling over 2500 copies (in both electronic and trade paper format) Lip Servicebecame the first e-book and the first self-published novel chosen by the LiteraryGuild/Doubleday Book Club as well as being the first e-book to go on to be published by a mainstream New York publishing house.

Rose has been profiled in Time magazine, Forbes, The New York Times, Business 2.0, Working Woman, Newsweek and New York Magazine.

Rose has appeared on The Today Show, Fox News, The Jim Lehrer NewsHour, and features on her have appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and abroad, including USAToday, Stern, L’Official, Poets and Writers and Publishers Weekly.

Rose graduated from Syracuse University and spent the ’80s in advertising. She was the Creative Director of Rosenfeld Sirowitz and Lawson and she has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

She lives in Connecticut with Doug Scofield, a composer, and their very spoiled dog, Winka. [from her website]

Disclaimer: I received an ebook from the France Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for this review and all opinions are my own. 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Liani Taylor

Kerou lives in Prague studying art. She is a typical teenager with typical teenage problems of love, betrayal and heartbreak. But is she? Kerou's family is strange. They are chimaera, half beasts and half human. She is sent on expeditions throughout the world by magic to collect teeth from sellers. Her foster father Brimstone is a wishmonger, one who grants wishes in return for teeth. Kerou though lived with her strange family and have run many errands for them have never questioned them about why they collect teeth or why she is different from them, what do they do with the teeth? Who or what are they? But when mysterious marks appear over the doors of the secret portal all over the world, and Kerou is attacked by an Angel, she has to find the answers for these questions because when the doors burned she loses the only connection to her family. How will she find them? Who is the angel? Why does he want her dead?

I picked this book for the various challenges but also because of the title which was creepy to me. I was expecting something dark, something scary, creepy kind of book. Especially the bit about collecting teeth, how creepy could it be! But this is a love story. Bored with teenagers of warring families falling in love creating mayhem and pain? Make the teenagers from different worlds, different species, Angels and Demons- perfect love story or is it?

I found the ball scene in the end to be grotesque while it should have been romantic, I think. Imagine various creature with different parts of beasts for different parts of body wearing a mask, dancing, sugared and all. Doesn't bide well with me.

The narrative kept me interested in what was going on, though there was a lag here and there. I liked the new twist about Angels and Demons. Not all beautiful things are good, and not all grotesque are evil. Not all Angels are good, not all chimaera are evil! And Angels and Chimaera are at war!